


Close Calls

by tchele



Category: NCIS
Genre: Drama & Romance, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-24
Updated: 2018-10-24
Packaged: 2019-08-06 18:09:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16392584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tchele/pseuds/tchele
Summary: Nick reflects on the close calls he and Ellie have had and resolves to do something about it.





	Close Calls

Close calls

He can’t look at lava lamps the same way anymore. Growing up his brain always associated the oddly shaped lamps with pain and regret having touched one as a child and gotten injured. Now though they remind him of the part they played in the near meltdown of a nuclear power plant, and how close he came to losing his team, how close he had come to losing her. 

They’d had too many close calls lately. He wasn’t a stranger to them, neither was she, but after losing Reeves in such a senseless way, mortality was on his mind frequently. As they crouched together behind that rusted out tub waiting for West to stop shooting he could feel her shaking and knew he was too. He had so much adrenaline flooding his veins that he almost didn’t feel the shrapnel in his shoulder. Almost.

He was so happy to see McGee. He didn’t really want her to have to cut the shrapnel out of his back, as much for her sake as his. He’d been in tight spots before and had to rely on makeshift treatment in the field, but he wasn’t out there alone and sometimes he forgot he didn’t have to do it that way anymore.

It wasn’t just the close calls that came to mind though. He thought about their two weeks undercover as Charlie and Luis. There had been so many times since that afternoon at the marina he looked back on that assignment.

He always knew she was gorgeous, but there was something about her undercover persona of Charlie that turned her into a stunning siren, and after she kissed him? It took all his training to focus on the task at hand. If he had to guess that was when he really started to see her as more than a partner and friend, that he had “left a candle burning” behind, but he lived in a world with rules. Rules that were sacred and he was just figuring out his place on the team. He didn’t dare break any, let alone number twelve.

He pushed down those burgeoning feelings for awhile, fairly successfully, but then he broke those sunglasses. Those sunglasses that led to him landing in jail with Jimmy Palmer, disappointing Gibbs, suspended, and drunk on her steps. He wasn’t sure how his feet led him there but when she sat down next to him he knew he went to the right place. She loved Reeves too and missed him as much as he did. She understood. When he woke up on her couch hungover the next morning and she made him breakfast and drove him home to get ready for work he knew he couldn’t continue to ignore what he felt. 

That’s what led him here, sitting in a bar nursing his beer, surrounded by his coworkers. They had solved their case and as had become their tradition gone out to celebrate. The party began to wind down in predictable fashion, McGee and Palmer left first as usual, followed by Kasie and then Sloane leaving just he and Ellie in the bar.

“Want to tell me what is bothering you?” Ellie asked as she moved to sit next to him.

“Why do you think something is bothering me?” Nick replied barely looking up.

“You’ve hardly said a word to anyone, didn’t harass Jimmy about ordering wine, and you’ve been staring off into space since we got here, actually since before we got here. What’s going on? Is this about Reeves?” Ellie asked quietly.

“Is this about Reeves? Not really, more about all the close calls we’ve all had lately.” Nick replied honestly.

“I thought you were big and bad and didn’t need anyone Nick Torres.” Ellie said with a grin.

“Yeah I thought that too, but we’ve come too close lately.” Nick replied.

“We had each other’s back, like always. It’ll be ok.” Ellie said.

“When I was undercover I never let myself think about anything other than my assignment, and where the next one would take me.” Nick replied with a sigh.

“I thought you had gotten used to being on a team.” Ellie said with a frown.

“I have, and that is what I was thinking about. I want more out of life, with someone who gets it.” Nick answered.

“What do you mean?” Ellie asked, confusion apparent on her face.

“I miss Charlie.” Nick replied.

“I miss Luis too.” Ellie said with a grin. “But what does that have to do with all this?”

“I miss the way Charlie fit like this.” Nick said as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder.

“Just how drunk are you right now?” Ellie asked.

“Not a bit, this is my first beer.” Nick answered as he lifted his bottle. “Why?”

“Because I wanted to do this and not feel like I was taking advantage of you.” Ellie replied as she leaned further into his embrace and pressed her lips to his.

It took him by surprise, he didn’t expect anything so bold from her in a place frequented by their coworkers. 

“I’ve wanted that for awhile.” Nick confessed, his voice thick with emotion.

“Me too. Since that night by the elevator.” Ellie replied honestly. “Why bring this up now?”

“Well actually you asked, so you brought it up.” Nick teased. “But a lot of things. The close calls were part of it. Lucia started dating again, getting serious with this guy. Wants to ‘meet the family’ and all. Just started me thinking about what I want.”

“And just what is that?” Ellie asked.

Nick shrugged. 

“Hey, I thought we were past you shutting me out the way you shut everyone else out.” Ellie asked, the agitation apparent in her voice.

“B, I’m not trying to shut you out. I just don’t know what to tell you.” Nick replied as he attempted to calm her down.

“How about the truth? What is really bothering you?” Ellie demanded bit more angrily than she intended.

“Lets go outside. I don’t want to have this conversation in a bar full of NCIS agents.” Nick replied.

They settled up their respective tabs and headed outside. “Ok spill. What’s really going on with you?” Ellie asked.

“Everything has made me realize how short life is and how much I want to see where these feelings I have for you could go.” Nick replied. 

“What about Rule twelve?” Ellie asked.

“I’m willing to risk it if you are.” Nick replied seriously.

“I think we owe it to ourselves to find ourselves to find out. Ok Torres take me home, feed me, we will talk, and see where the evening takes us.” Ellie said as she took his hand.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote 99% of this before the episode aired tonight. I’m not super happy with the ending, and with the scene in tonight’s episode and the looks that Ellie was shooting Torres I’m thinking they’ve already gotten together...who knows.


End file.
